4 Ways to Make Your Event More Like TED

While I'm only half-way through it, the verdict is in, and TED is...well it's an incredible, thoroughly immersive experience. And while not every event needs to be TED, I believe that the importance of offline gatherings is increasing every year, and all event planners owe it to their participants to be the best they can be. Accordingly, here are four inspirations I've already taken away from TED, to help make your next event the best it can be:

1. Break the Silos: There are pockets of particular industry niches here -- for example, there's a strong Silicon Valley investor and entrepreneur presence. There's a bit of a group from Hollywood. There are a number of New York ad execs. But the nature of the event is to allow those people to flow together, unmolested by the constraints of their titles and industries. In social change, we often "break down the silos" by having events that just have panels for those different silos -- which, frankly, can just end up ghettoizing things even more.

2. Make Everyone Feel Wanted: People who have seen TED talks know the power of a great speech. What's better as a participant is the way the event goes out of its way to make you feel wanted. Every dinner comes as a personalized invitation, and even when you know everyone else got the same invite, it still feels great. Importantly, that approach dictates the norm for the event as a whole and helps determine the open way in which people interact with one another.

3. Make the Little Stuff Easy: This is one that everyone can get right. Make sure there is coffee available, and water. Make sure that there is someone there to help. Be prompt, stay calm. Work hard, but when it comes to it, relinquish control. It's amazing how much the little details can make the difference between a good and great experience.

4. Be Concerned With Energy: Most conferences that I've been to that people don't love have really, really bad energy flow. The breaks cut people off right when they're digging into conversation. Panel discussions (which I think are necessarily awful) ruthlessly and regularly destroy momentum. Three sets of intros make you pissed off before you even see whatever keynote you're supposed to be excited about.

I think every event planner needs to view themselves as first and foremost an ambassador of energy. They are the power grid. And guess what? Energy comes from the other people in the room. In other words, events are best off when they allow for and augment the natural flow of people to connect with one another. Content is just the thing that gives them something to talk about.

Photo Credit: TED / Marla Aufmuth